Board Certifications

Biography

Mary T. Donofrio, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics and full-time attending in the Division of Cardiology at Children's National Health System. She is Director of the Fetal Heart Program and Critical Care Delivery Program, Director of the Advanced Cardiac Imaging Fellowship, and Co-director of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Program. Under her leadership, the Fetal Heart Program treats each fetus as an individual patient, and specialized care begins before birth. With her vision, she expanded the program to include the Washington, DC, region’s only Early Fetal Cardiac Imaging Program, where we can detect heart abnormalities in high-risk pregnancies in the first trimester, as early as 12 weeks gestation.

Dr. Donofrio joined the staff at Children’s National after spending nine years at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, directing the echocardiography laboratory. She completed her cardiology fellowship training at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and performed advanced training in fetal echocardiography at Yale University. Dr. Donofrio is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American Academy of Pediatrics, and American Society of Echocardiography. She is a member of the American Pediatric Society and the Society for Pediatric Research.

Her research has focused on autoregulation of cerebral blood flow in fetuses with congenital heart disease and the effects the circulation has on neurodevelopmental outcome in congenital heart disease patients. She also has developed care protocols for delivery room management of neonates diagnosed with complex congenital heart disease in-utero. She is a national expert in the areas of fetal cardiology, echocardiology, and pediatric cardiology. Dr. Donofrio is on several journal editorial boards, research committees, and has published over 60 papers and abstracts, including the first published Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Fetal Cardiac Disease.

Dr. Donofrio see patients at the Sheikh Zayed Campus for Advanced Children's Medicine and Children's Outpatient Centers. She also collaborates with Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialists in the community seeing families with them in their local offices.

Dr. Donofrio is married and has two children. She grew up in Delaware and currently resides in Northern Virginia. Her interests include theater and music.

"I hope if anything, you find the positive in your situation and believe in your child's doctors and team at Children's National. They have been there for us through so much and we couldn't have asked for a better experience than we had during this life-changing event."

"People always tell me 'You're so strong, I don't know how you got through it.' I like to say that you never know how strong you are or what you are capable of until you have no choice but to be strong."

News

Earlier this year, the American Heart Association (AHA) released a scientific statement on the diagnosis and treatment of fetal cardiac disease written by a team of cardiac and obstetrical experts with lead author, Mary T. Donofrio, MD, Director of the Fetal Heart Program and Medical Director of the Critical Care Delivery Program for the Fetal Medicine Institute at Children’s National Health System.